Nupur Chaturvedi

Filter

How schooled should reactions be?
Should pain not be expressed in screams?
Shouldn’t a joke get a full-throated guffaw?
Should you muffle your anger under an urbane cloak,
Or should you spew out all the venom it is building inside you?

It’s what separates us from animals, you say, this control.
Okay.
But do animals live in constructed edifices of contrived circumstances?

This will to express, to reach out, to connect or disconnect with another,
This multiplicity of reactions, with the ability to affect another,
These muscles that crease foreheads, upturn the lips in a smile,
Squeeze the lachrymal glands.
This is what makes us human.

No, it’s not okay to always succumb to reactions.
But must we filter each of them and render them neutral–render ourselves neutral?

One morning…

I saw a horse with shiny coat today,
Galloping ahead of cars and trucks,
Blinkered vision it might have had,
But the focus overcame all faults.

The rider, though, was a scrawny lad,
Being carried than riding the steed,
Scraggy face and raggedy clothes,
He was no Prince Charming.

The horse, the rider went past me,
An instant of contrasts hitting my mind,
Fast cars, noise, colour, money, buildings with glass windows,
And amidst it all – broken dreams, glimmers of hope, wind, energy, focus, drive.

New Year

Does time know of its passage?
At midnight, 31st December, does it blare horns and scream Happy New Year?
Does it look back on the year and
Smile, at the memory of a World Cup win?
Shake its head, at the stubborn vagaries of rabid revolutions?
Reflect fondly, at the undulating, yet comforting paths of relationships?
Feel its eyes go moist, at people lost forever?
Stop the flood of memories at that moment, to linger on that one memory of the dear one lost?
Does it then change gear to think about tomorrow, because yesterday is painful?
Does it plan holidays, new projects?
Does it build new hopes that this year would be different?
Does time know of its passage?
Or is it just me?